"You're good so far. I - like being liked."

"You make me very very happy. When I expressed concern to my sister that having a crush on you put me at risk of becoming one of those objectionable persons who expect reciprocation as their due and are offended when it fails to be forthcoming, she asked me if I would want to hang out with you if I knew for a fact that you were permanently disinterested, and I said of course--simply being around you makes me much happier than I am used to being."

"I am in no way permanently disinterested! Forty percent of the reason I show up to magical girl club is that I now have such a small dating pool I can't rely on encountering people I might like without going out of my way to surround myself with magical girls and I was pretty thoroughly disappointed with the selection till you showed up!"

"Thank you." 

"You're welcome."

"The point was less about the real chance of whether you would be interested or not and more about making sure I was not at risk of thinking that I was in some way entitled to your interest. It is a failure mode I had not previously had occasion to put effort into avoiding."

"Well. Good so far."

"Yes, I think Jaromira's test suggests it's not one of the failure modes I'm liable to fall into. But it was important to check. I--strongly desire that my company not become a net negative for you."

"I've been weirdly cheerful since I met you, Xander said so."

"I'm very glad to hear it."

"He asked me what was up and I said 'new club girl who spontaneously mentioned Norman Borlaug' and he said 'oh yeah I forgot you're gay now' and I said 'good for you, I didn't!'"

She laughs. "What were you before?" 

"I was straight. I'd just about figured that out when I starscaped. I wouldn't have been thrilled about editing my brain even if I had been gay but it made it worse."

"I think I'm glad I didn't like most people enough to figure it out."

"Fewer might-have-beens. I at least didn't get as far as dating any boys."

"That seems like a very awkward breakup."

"Happened to Alexis. I think they still aren't speaking."

"Oh dear. I...suppose I could see that as a reason for turning down magic--I still wouldn't, but it wouldn't be incomprehensible."

"I'm glad it doesn't come older than sixteen, considering, people can have strong relationships at that age but they're unlikely to be actually married."

"That's certainly a benefit...it's not how I would arrange things but as long as it's assigned nigh-randomly the age limit is probably for the best."

"Plus as long as it's arranged randomly at least there's a defined point at which you stop planning your life around the possibility. I don't know, maybe I'm just rationalizing because I don't know how to change it. I wonder if you can diagnose incipient magical girls, do you want to strafe an elementary school sometime and find out?"

"Oh, that would be marvelous--it would mean Jaromira won't, more's the pity, but that wasn't especially high-likelihood anyway."

"They're probably not in session right now but if you want to be a few minutes late to the club you can maybe catch some buses leaving, enough to get a guess. I can show you where Renée teaches."

"As long as it wouldn't be--misinterpreted."

"As what? We're teenage girls, not forty year old men."